Neil - When I first
read this statement I FELT the writer was rather pessimistic about leadership
and leadership training.I FELT the
writer is only seeing the negative side of things and must have had some pretty
bad experiences of leadership to write this.I also FELT a sense of hopelessness and despair about the apparent
parlous state of leadership development which from the writer’s perspective is
having little positive impacts despite the money and time being poured into
this area.I am FEELING
some sympathy with the sentiments of the statement because like anything there
is good and bad.However, I FEEL sorry
for the writer because he only sees the negative side of things and is missing
the many good leaders who add value to the organization they are leading.I FEEL disappointed the writer was not at our
previous weekend because he/she would have been encouraged by the many examples
of leadership we heard about.Whereas
this statement is negative I am FEELING positive about the weekend because of
the previous one and knowing Colin and Paul what they bring to the weekend will
be very different and refreshing.

George - When i read this statement, i immediately started thinking about WHY what kellerman is saying has come to pass. why is it that all this time/effort/money hasn't really gotten us anywhere? My FEELINGS on the matter are that it's because people have changed. People just don't really give a shit any more. They're self-centred, self-absorbed and apathetic. I FEEL that to be a good leader you need to have a good grasp of what's going on around you. I.e have situational awareness. When you don't know or care what else is going on, i don't FEEL like you will ever be able to be even halfway competent at what you do. If you don't know or care about the situation, how can you decide how best to approach it? You can't. you'll just approach it in whatever way is easiest for YOU, and fuck anyone else for which things may become more difficult.This i FEEL ties into the notion in the situation statement that "followers are becoming more empowered and emboldened but also disappointed and disillusioned", that is that they know how to do their bosses jobs better than their bosses do. Think about it... This is WHY they're both bold and disillusioned. That's exactly how i and everyone else i've ever observed respond to such a situation.Like the saying goes - if they're no good, promote them. The real life dilbert principle.

Heidi - When I read the statement I FELT at first like I wasn't qualified to comment as I haven't been studying leadership very long, but then I FELT, with a little reflection, that yes, it seems true and that I really think leadership style is more dependent on personality and life experience and you can teach anyone the best principles in the world, and they can look like they're taking it in, but if they are not naturally a receptive and reflective person they could easily revert to their natural tendencies. I FELT abit disheartened about coming to this conclusion.

Ann- My initial FEELINGS upon reading this statement are of amazement and disappointment at the negativity portrayed in it. I FEEL cheated at being given what is surely a paragraph taken from research with statistics backing up the writers outrageous statement. However without reading what is previous to this statement, I FEEL that the reader must remain nonjudgmental and keep their FEELINGS neutral as it appears that the statement has been lifted from its surrounding information. This brings the thought to mind that perhaps it is better to have neutral FEELINGS until all the information is available. I FEEL that Colin Jones has done an excellent job once again of choosing a controversial statement which will whet the appetites of the participants.

Daniel - When I first read the situation statement, I FELT it was quite negative and I somewhat agreed with it. One of my first thoughts was about the statement speaking of growing leaders. If we can identify traits or talents of a good leader, such as flexibility, patience, a big picture thinker, good listener and communicator, motivator etc, we could teach them to any person who wants to lead. I also FELT when reading the statement, that if we have spent enormous amounts of money and time, somebody should come up with a better way to teach leaders or at least teaching leaders how to interpret what their followers are thinking.